


Prove Them (dead) Wrong

by SilverMoon53



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Entrapta-centric, Gen, idk im tired and cant think of how else to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 11:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18603520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoon53/pseuds/SilverMoon53
Summary: Entrapta learns of her own death.It doesn’t go over well.





	Prove Them (dead) Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been trying to figure out how Entrapta is going to respond when she finds out the others think she's dead. I came up with two very different ways it could go.
> 
> This is the dark/angsty one. I'm more proud of the world building and first half of this one, but I kinda rushed the ending because I wanted to post it before season 2, so idk how good it is overall. Anyway, enjoy!

It wasn’t just the large robots that Entrapta enjoyed toying with. The small ones proved useful and easier to work on; the perfect distraction when she was stuck on a larger project. 

One of her favorite robots she had built since joining the Horde was a modified version of the scrap collecting robot she had seen on her first day. Small, quick-moving and easy to overlook, Entrapta had created a small army of these collection robots. Their basic task was the same, but she had changed their target. They looked for information now, instead of scrap parts. 

She had needed to change them quite a bit to better adapt for this new target, but their basic shape remained the same. The pinchers and legs had been made longer and stronger, to help the little bots climb over anything in their path, and the basket on the back was replaced with monitoring equipment. Camera, audio recorder, vials to collect samples of anything Entrapta deemed worth collecting, the usual for a surveillance robot. 

Once she had built enough of them, she released them into Etheria. She had enough information about the Fright Zone, and anything else she needed to learn she could figure out herself. The rest of Etheria, however, was an ever changing mystery to her. Entrapta wanted to know how the rest of the world was doing, and to look for more First Ones’ tech, without having to leave the safety of her new home. 

And, though she would never admit it, she wanted to know how her former friends were doing. They may have abandoned her, but part of her still cared for them. 

Of course, these robots reported to Entrapta and Entrapta alone. The information she wanted wasn’t relevant to her experiments for the Horde, and anything she found that was would be easy enough to transfer to other robots. It wasn’t like she had any real loyalty to the Horde anyway. Working with them just allowed her to do the experiments she had always wanted to, she didn’t care for their goals of world domination or anything like that. She was, technically, still their prisoner after all. Catra and Scorpia had simply given up on keeping her chained, so she had free reign of the Fright Zone, and she had Hordak’s support for her work, but she had never been released. Ergo, she was still a prisoner, and had no reason to share anything with the Horde if it wouldn’t further her own goals. 

Even with that aside, and even if she was mad at the other princesses for leaving her behind, Entrapta didn’t want to give the Horde information to go after them directly. They had been nice to her, before they left her behind. Bow said he was a fan of her work, and Mermista had told her they made a good team. 

Maybe there had been a misunderstanding. It wasn’t uncommon for Entrapta to not understand what other people meant. Maybe they had told her to meet them outside of the Fright Zone, and she had forgotten, or hadn’t been paying attention. That was a possible hypothesis, and on the off chance it was true, Entrapta didn’t want to endanger anyone. 

Even though she was happier in the Fright Zone, with Scorpia and Catra, than she had been before, she didn’t want anyone to get hurt. 

Also, it was more fun to have a secret side project that no one else knew about. 

Entrapta had been slowly expanding the radius her surveillance robots would go before returning. Although they were able to move fairly quickly, it still took them longer to travel than people do, so she didn’t want to send them too far away in case something went wrong and they needed repairs or adjustments.

Not that they would. All of Entrapta’s robots were perfect. 

Barring corruption from First Ones’ tech, of course. 

But she had learned a lot from that experiment, and she was of the opinion that you learn more from failures than you do from success, so wouldn’t that mean that even failed experiments are successful? 

Entrapta shook her head. She didn’t care much for thoughts like that, for things that couldn’t be quantified and calculated. They confused her in ways that robots and technology never did. Besides, one of the surveillance robots she had sent to another kingdom had finally returned, and she couldn’t wait to sift through its data. 

“Fright Zone, personal log.” Entrapta broke off with an excited squeal and rushed on, completely forgetting to specify when this recording was happening. “My first long distance surveillance bot has returned from the Kingdom of Plumeria. The camouflage I added to it seems to have prevented it from being spotted, or at least I can assume as much because it hasn’t self destructed like the last few I sent over did. Side note, is the self destruct upon discovery function useful? Fun, yes, and it prevents others from finding my research, but it does also destroy any data the bot had collected up to that point before I get to look at it.” 

The robot, affectionately named Percy, chirped at her, reminding her that he had data to be collected. Entrapta smiled at Percy and patted him with her hair. She turned to her screen again and pushed a button on her recorder. 

“Right, back on track. Percy has returned after approximately 36 hours in Plumeria, plus travel time. He is the first bot sent to Plumeria that has returned with data, as other attempts had been discovered and self destructed. Side note, send scrap bots to Plumeria to scavenge remains of previous attempts.”

Percy chirped again and Entrapta laughed. She reached a tendril of hair down and plugged the robot into her computer. He blipped and whirred as the information transfer began. 

“Okay,” Entrapta said slowly, her eyes rapidly scanning the pictures and audio transcripts as they slid across the screen. “Information retrieval appears to be a huge success! Percy managed to return with more information than I had anticipated, or had even hoped for. My first cursory glance over that data reveals that quite a lot has changed in Plumeria since my last visit. Of course, that visit was at an unusual time, from what I’ve heard from Perfu- Plumeria’s Princess.”

Emily, ever at Entrapta’s side, sensed her unease and gave her a gentle nudge. Entrapta patted the robot’s head and shook her own to clear it of thoughts of her former friends. 

“My last visit to the kingdom was shortly after the resurrection of the Princess Alliance, so they had already begun to bolster their defenses. Now, however, it seems that they have greatly advanced both their defensive and offensive measures. Although minimal intelligent life was recorded - as per Percy’s see-don’t-be-seen parameters, which have put more emphasis on the don’t-be-seen part after previous models have been discovered and self destructed - the buildings and terrain have been adapted to be much less friendly to invaders. Of course, the picture is suboptimal as this experiment is still in the beginning stages. I can fix that easily now that I know it will work, improving the cameras and storage and such. Furthermore, it seems-” Entrapta cut herself off, having seen something that made no sense. 

She dropped her recorder in shock, her hair falling limp and dumping her to the floor with a _clunk_. Emily and Percy both beeped in alarm, but Entrapta paid them no mind. As quickly as she had fallen, Entrapta was up again. Her fingers blurred as she typed rapidly, trying to back up the stream of data, trying to see if she had seen what she thought she saw. 

“No,” she told herself. For once she didn’t speak into her recorder, too confused to even pick it up again. “No, I didn’t- they wouldn’t-” 

She froze the screen, staring and slack jawed, at a complete loss for words for the first time in her life. She had seen what she had thought. 

Entrapta stood on the screen, grainy and green with specks of colour dotting her figure. She stood proudly, hands on her hips and mask raised, her hair cascading down and around the base of the statue. A perfect, living replica, made of vines and flowers, probably made with Perfuma’s magic. 

“They- they made a statue? Of me?” Entrapta leaned forward, trying to understand. There was a plaque at the bottom of her statue. A few quick taps of the keyboard had her zoomed in enough to read it. “ _‘In memory of Entrapta. May she rest in peace’_? Why would…”

In a daze, Entrapta stepped away from the screen. Absentmindedly, she reached down and grabbed her recorder with her hair as she started pacing on foot. She pressed down on the record button and began muttering into it.

“Edit to log. It seems that there is a statue of me in Plumeria, created out of living plants. It seems safe to assume that it was created by Princess Perfuma’s magic, as it seems in pristine condition, despite the unfavorable weather conditions for some of the flowers on it. The writing on the base indicates that I am dead, and the date of death aligns with that of the attempt to rescue Bow and Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon. More notably, this is the date that I got separated from the rest of the Princess Alliance, approximately two days before I realised they left me behind.”

Entrapta paused again, the gears in her head spinning wildly. Emily trotted over to her and pressed into her side. The robot murmured and Entrapta looked down at her. 

“They think I’m dead?” Her hair lifted her up again and carried her over to the screen. “No, that doesn’t make sense. I’m not dead, and they didn’t think that Bow or Glimmer were dead. Okay. Facts, facts are good.” 

Entrapta clapped twice and another robot came over. Although she usually preferred audio recordings of her notes, sometimes it was easier to have things written down. Entrapta had always been told that her writing was illegible at best, however, which was where Mark came in. 

Mark was her scribe robot, named because “Mark my words.” Entrapta found it funny, and it usually caused her to smile when she had him write things down for her. Not this time, however.

“Mark, make note of the following facts,” Entrapta began. Mark beeped and pulled out paper. “Fact #1: There is a memorial statue of me in Plumeria. Fact #2: The Princess Aliance left me in the Fright Zone after the successful rescue of Bow and Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon, as well as the portable runestone that is She-Ra’s sword. Fact #3: The date on the statue is the same as the date of the rescue attempt.”

Mark finished writing down the facts and then flashed his lights at Entrapta, indicating that he was waiting for more. Entrapta held her tongue, thinking. Were there more facts? She could combine the facts to find implications, but only a fool made conclusions before considering all the facts. 

“Fact #4: I am not dead. Fact #5: The assumption of my death was made without any evidence, as all evidence would indicate that I am alive. Fact #6: They did not come back to look for me.”

She felt a few tears start to form, and irritably whisked them away with her hair. Emotions had no place in facts and data. She flipped her mask down and kept going.

“Fact #7: Despite being made of plants and having been created weeks ago, the statue is in good condition. Fact #8: There are several bouquets at the bottom of the statue, in varying degrees of wilting and other decay.” She paused again, trying to remember any other facts from that mission. “Fact #9: The last time I saw any of them was after the rescue of Bow, when the Alliance, sans Adora and Glimmer, plus Bow, were retreating to go find a skiff. Fact #10: I got separated from the group when going back to help Emily in the chamber purge. End fact collection.” 

Mark blinked his lights again and moved over to Entrapta. He ripped the page off the notepad and passed it to her. Entrapta clapped her hands and, dismissed, Mark returned to his spot along the wall and powered down. She read over the list a few times. Once satisfied with it, she pulled out her recorder again. 

“I have collected ten facts on the topic and will now attempt to extrapolate from them.” She forced her voice to be steady and clear, despite the emotions still stirring inside. “For the purpose of this data, ‘they’ will refer to the members of the Princess Alliance, myself excluded, as it existed at the time of the rescue.”

Entrapta didn’t say anything for several long seconds after that. She held her record button down and worked her mouth silently, but was unable to find the words she was looking for. Emily, worried, pressed closer to Entrapta and chirped. Entrapta absentmindedly petted the robot with her hair, then pulled the recorder closer to her mouth. Swallowing thickly, she began to speak.

“There are, as far as I can tell, two reasons for Perfuma to make a memorial for me. The first being that they think I am dead.” She broke off with another shuddering breath, but didn’t try to wipe away the tears this time. “I will now examine this case. 

“In order for them to think I’m dead, the most logical place where I would have died would be during the last chamber purge, where I got separated from the rest of the group. I- I suppose this would not an egregious place to jump to the conclusion of my demise. After all, the chambers were purged of all biological substance. Emily wasn’t in danger from the purge when I went back for her, but leaving her in the chamber would have meant leaving her behind, as I was sure the others wouldn’t be willing to go back to rescue her. As such, I was able to survive the purge by climbing inside of Emily. I had planned to wait inside of Emily until the chamber had cooled enough, then make my escape. By the time I reopened the chamber, they were gone.”

Entrapta paused again and started to pace. She did so with her own feet, finding the physical motion helped keep her head clear, while her hair flew in all directions, grabbing robot parts at random and fidgeting with them before tossing them aside, carelessly. Emily, ever the loyal friend, kept pace beside her.

“They left without trying to reopen the chamber. They left without confirming my death, or finding any remains. They just _left me!_ ” she spat. There had been sadness, when Entrapta had first learned that her friends had left her behind, but that was gone now. Anger boiled up in its place, filling her and making her hair thrash even more wildly. “Did they really think so little of me? That I wouldn’t have survived? That I would have run back to my own death, without a plan for surviving the purge if it came to that? That I hadn’t understood the chambers well enough to know their weak points? Hadn’t they all seen the predictable pattern that the flames came in, or how they were designed to not damage Horde technology?”

Emily let out an indignant beep of agreement.

“Or was it case two?” Entrapta continued, looking at the fact list again. “Did they simply leave me behind, not caring enough to see if I was alive or not? Did they leave me for dead? Like I was nothing to them? And then have the _nerve_ to mourn me, as though they were not responsible, at least in part, for my death?” She stopped pacing, eyes unfocused, racking her brain for the explanation. 

“Nothing about this makes any sense,” she said to Emily after several long seconds. “They had no reason to think I was dead, unless they acted on incomplete data. But that doesn’t seem like Bow. The others, maybe, but Bow is part of the Etherian makers community, so he should know the importance of gathering all the information before acting on it. This leads me to believe that they did not know I was dead when they left me behind, as I believe that Bow would not act without all the information, and the evidence would have obviously led to the assumption of my life, rather than my death. Because I was, and am, alive. 

“So the first conclusion I can make from the data I have gathered, combined with the knowledge of the group from my experience with them, is that they did not know if I was dead or alive when they left me behind. Despite this, they think I am now dead, as evidenced by the memorial. The only way I can combine those two pieces of data is if they decided to act as though I am dead, despite lacking solid proof. The question I am left with is _why?_ ” 

Entrapta began pacing again, slower this time. She took measured, even steps, hands and hair twisting together anxiously, one tendril still holding down the record button. 

“Was it… was it just easier for them? To pretend I’m dead? Did they think that pretending I’m dead would make me go away? That they could just leave me here, and then lie about it to make themselves feel better?” The anger inside of her returned, the low simmer of water about to boil. “There are too many variables! There is too much I don’t know for sure, too many assumptions! How do I know that they would respond any differently to my death than anyone else’s-” 

Entrapta froze, then smacked herself on the forehead. 

“That’s the problem! I don’t have enough information. What I need is more data. I’m acting on the assumption that their reaction to my death is different than it would be to another’s death, that their personal annoyances with me caused them to react significantly outside of the normal range. I’m going at this the wrong way!”

Emily beeped at Entrapta, questioningly. Entrapta smiled at her robot, and gently patted her head as she explained. 

“If I want to know if their reaction to my assumed death is related to how much they liked me, then I need a control to compare to. I need for one of _them_ to die, so I can see how the others respond,” Entrapta said, smiling coldly down at Emily. She flipped her mask down and pulled out some tools, plans already forming. “More data is required.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I managed to get both this fic and the other to fit within her characterization, though I'm not sure how I did on this one. Like I said, the ending is kinda rushed so don't judge me too harshly on it ladkjfalk. Anyway, it was fun writing two fics with the same basic idea, but going in very different directions. Also I'm glad I was able to finish them both before season 2 drops, since we're probably going to see her actual reaction!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading, and as always, feel free to send me a message on my social media:  
> Writeblr blog: @silverssideblog  
> Discord: cloudcover#7167


End file.
